Academic Disputes

Cross-registration of students in courses within the consortium is a valuable feature of the Graduate Theological Union. The GTU and all the member schools are committed to ensuring that students have appropriate recourse in the event that they have a complaint about some aspect of their experience while taking courses at a school other than their own.

The following protocol is to be followed in any such cases, including but not limited to complaints concerning unfair discrimination, cultural insensitivity, sexual harassment, and disputes over grades and other forms of academic evaluation.

1. Each school of the GTU is committed to giving students from all other schools access to its normal complaint process whenever they are taking courses or studying with faculty at the host school.
2. Students are encouraged to attempt to resolve the complaint directly by raising the issue with the individual at the host school whose conduct is the focus of the complaint.
3. If the matter cannot be resolved directly, the student should bring the complaint to the attention of the dean of the student’s own school.
4. The dean of the student’s school will then contact the dean of the host school in order to help the student determine which policies and procedures at the host school are relevant to the situation.
5. The normal policies and procedures of the host school will be followed, with the added proviso that the dean of the student’s school will be kept informed of the progress made in addressing the complaint.
6. At the conclusion of the complaint resolution process, the dean of the host school will report the outcome in writing to both the student and the dean of the student’s school.